It was "a piecemeal effort'', Shadow Labour Minister Mr. Alex Scott, Shadow Finance Minister Mr. Eugene Cox and public relations officer Ms Paula Cox said in a statement.

Furthermore, the idea "borrowed heavily from the long-standing policies of the Progressive Labour Party'', they said.

"In our view the Minister of Labour (the Hon. J. Irving Pearman) is merely shadow boxing with the problem of full Bermudian employment, as opposed to a well thought out national plan for the promotion and protection of Bermudians in the Bermudian economy and workplace.'' Job training and retraining in "leaner, meaner times'' was something the PLP had been urging for a decade, they said.

The idea was outlined most recently in the PLP's Budget reply.

Jobless or laid-off Bermudians would benefit from training and re-training schemes because they could assist themselves rather than becoming "addicted to social assistance handouts''.

Ten years ago, they pointed out, then Opposition Leader Mrs. Lois Browne Evans MP said a PLP Government would be committed to introducing a "Bermuda Human Resources Training Programme'' so Bermudians could be fully employed.

And two years ago in address to the Bermuda Training and Development Association Mr. Scott urged re-training Bermudians for new roles in the job market.

"So we find it intriguing to see that the UBP Government has formed a committee to consider this very issue,'' the statement said. "Even more intriguing is the plight of the construction workers, which we have consistently and repeatedly focused on, is now to be considered by the UBP.

"The Finance Minister claimed this week that the recession forced a `shakedown' in which companies `got leaner and meaner to put their operations right'.

"If this is so, one would have thought that before now the Government would have assumed its responsibility to try and alleviate some of the casualties of the leaner, meaner times.'' The Labour Minister, in revealing Government's plans to pay for job re-training, said the move came about as a result of discussions by a new Cabinet committee formed to deal with about 500 people still without jobs and another 200 to 250 "under-employed''.

Mr. Pearman, the chairman of the committee, said members wanted to move away from earlier practices of trying to manage economic troubles to a "new, positive mode of re-training and development''.

A goal was to wean people off social assistance and re-train them for available jobs in business sectors identified by the committee.